Where the Trees Watch – Chapter 30
The Voice Beneath the Water
The whisper came from directly below him.
Ryan froze mid-step while freezing black water surged around his waist beneath the drifting fog. The current moved strangely here now, circling his legs instead of flowing naturally downstream.
Then his own voice whispered again from beneath the surface.
“You’re almost gone.”
Ryan Mercer looked downward instinctively.
At first he saw only dark water reflecting pale moonlight through the fog.
Then the river surface shifted.
A face slowly appeared beneath the current directly below him.
His face.
Eyes open underwater.
Watching him from beneath the black river.
Ryan physically stumbled backward in horror while cold water splashed violently around him. The submerged version of himself remained beneath the surface smiling calmly upward through distorted ripples.
The copy on the opposite bank laughed softly.
“You keep looking for monsters in Blackwood,” it said gently. “But the forest only shows people what they’re willing to lose.”
Ryan’s thoughts blurred painfully again. Something important slipped away from him completely this time.
A birthday.
Someone’s name.
Gone.
The realization terrified him more than the river itself.
Claire continued drifting farther through the water while the silent figures surrounding her remained perfectly still beneath the fog. Ryan forced himself toward her again despite the freezing current clawing harder around his legs now.
“Claire, listen to me.”
She turned weakly toward him.
For one brief second, genuine recognition returned to her face.
“Ryan…?”
Hope surged through him instantly.
“Yes. Yes, it’s me.”
Claire blinked hard like someone waking from deep sleep. Tears slowly filled her eyes while confusion spread across her expression.
“What happened to us?”
Before Ryan could answer, the smiling copy stepped closer along the opposite riverbank beneath the dead trees.
“You don’t have to hurt anymore,” it whispered softly.
Claire’s face changed again immediately.
The recognition weakened.
Ryan saw it fading.
The river was pulling her away faster now.
Then something beneath the water grabbed his ankle.
Ryan gasped violently and nearly collapsed into the river as icy fingers wrapped tightly around his leg from below. He looked down in panic.
Hands.
Dozens of pale human hands reached upward beneath the black current around him.
The forgotten people beneath the river were moving.
Walter shouted from shore, “GET OUT OF THE WATER!”
The silent figures standing throughout the river slowly began turning toward Ryan now one by one. Pale empty faces stared at him beneath drifting fog while the hands below the surface tightened harder around his legs.
Then the woman beside him whispered urgently:
“The river knows you’re resisting.”
Another memory vanished inside Ryan’s head suddenly.
His apartment building.
Gone completely.
Panic exploded through him.
If he stayed much longer—
there would be nothing left to remember.
The copy across the bank watched calmly.
“You’re tired, Ryan.”
The thing’s voice sounded almost compassionate now.
“You spent your whole life trying to matter to people who barely noticed you.” It tilted its head slightly. “Blackwood notices.”
The words hit dangerously close to something true.
Ryan hated that.
Claire slowly sank lower into the river again while her expression emptied beneath the fog. Water reached her shoulders now.
Ryan forced himself forward despite the hands clawing at his legs under the surface.
Then he grabbed her wrist.
The moment he touched her—
memories exploded through his mind.
Claire laughing during their first documentary shoot years earlier.
Late-night editing sessions.
Arguments in cheap hotel rooms during road trips.
Shared cigarettes outside gas stations at 2 AM.
Moments he’d forgotten mattered until now.
The river had been stripping away his memories piece by piece.
But Claire still carried them too.
Ryan held onto her harder.
And for the first time—
the copy on the riverbank stopped smiling.